Last night we had an impromtu dinner party. That's my favorite kind. No one expects the house to be too clean. The house actually was pretty clean, as I had finally gotten fed up with state of the place and so dusted and vacuumed the tv room and porch.
When I dust and vacuum, I do a pretty thorough job. The kids just run the vacuum around the center of the room but I move furniture and get the whole floor. Likewise with the dusting. I make sure the pictures, books, dvd's, shelves and furniture get equal attention. It's a workout.
No wonder I only do it once a month.
But when Jay came home and said he'd run into an old friend and invited him to dinner, the place looked pretty good.
Tyler was also here with his friend Paige, whom he met when they were in college together. He showed her around the house and she was impressed with my dvd collection. She said her mom and I have the same taste in movies.
"Does your mom consider a "chick flick" to be anything starring Bruce Willis?" I asked.
"Well, she prefers Johnny Depp."
Oh yeah. We could definitely hang out.
Paige also caught sight of JP's latest publicity photo. (you can see it at
www.IMDb.com under JP Hubbell)
"Oh my God, who is that hot guy?!" she asked Tyler.
"He's my Uncle. Guess how old he is."
"Who cares?" she gushed. "Twenty eight?"
A publicity photo that takes off twenty years is a damn good photo. The sick part is that he really looks like that. That's what not having kids does for you.
Just before dinner was ready, I got a call from Katie, who had just flown in from New York. She had spent the weekend there, checking out Columbia's Law School. She had landed and had no checked bag so I told her I'd be right out and to meet me at baggage claim.
I got to the airport and sllllooooowwwly drove through the baggage level.
No Katie.
So I circled the airport and prepared to swing through again.
It had been a rainy, grey day but right around six the storm clouds parted and the humidity levels were plummeting so fast I could feel the difference as I drove over the bridge that would shoot me back into the airport loop. That bridge is really neat; not only does it make it easier to circle back into the airport, but from up top it provides one of the best views in the metro. Not only do you get a birds eye view of the river and surrounding bluffs, but you get a panoramic view of both downtown St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis. There aren't many places where you can see that.
I drove slowly through baggage claim again. No Katie.
I circled again. This time, thinking maybe she hadn't heard me say 'baggage claim', I drove through the departure level. No Katie.
The sky was turning all pink and gold and the view from the bridge was getting prettier by the minute but I really didn't want to spend the evening at the airport. I had company waiting at home, not to mention a really delicious glass of banana liquer that Karen had brought over. I was getting mad.
When you pick someone up from the airport, you are doing them a favor. A large favor. If anyone should have to waste time and wait around, it should be the person
getting the favor, not the person
doing the favor. Correct? I was swearing to myself that from now on, if someone needed a ride from the airport they shouldn't call until they had all their bags and were standing on the curb.
I swung thru one more time and there she was, looking as cute as can be.
"Where have you been?" I asked when she got in the car. "Did I miss you sitting there?"
"No." she said. "I flew in on Sun Country and landed at the other terminal."
Our airport has two terminals. The big (Lindberg) terminal, where the major airlines fly out of and the little (Humphrey) terminal where Sun Country and other little airlines are allowed to land. Katie had flown out on American.
"Why didn't you tell me that when you called?" I asked (loudly and impatiently).
"I didn't know until I got off the plane and when I called you back you had already left."
That's it. From now on, no one call until you've got all your bags AND YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE.
I got home just as the chicken was coming off the grill. Someone drank my banana liquor.
It was a very fun evening and I stayed up too late. After the guests had left and everthing had been cleaned up, I got sucked into a show on the National Geographic channel on the volcanic eruption on Monserrat back in 1995. It was fascinating, but I finally had to turn it off. It was late and I had a big day planned for today.
Which maybe I'll write about tomorrow.
